To come up with a concept with a unique selling point isn’t easy, but Club Meatballs seems to have found their niche. You can probably guess what they specialise in from the restaurant’s name, and I couldn’t wait to see whether they lived up to their name. The lunch menu features mainly subs and salads, whereas dinner is cheekily titled “Pimp Your Balls”. Put your meal together by selecting your balls, then choose what you would like to have under and on top of those balls, all for $14.
Our first selection was the 100% Australian Grass Fed Beef meatballs with fresh thyme x Italian Pappardelle x Red Wine & Onion Sauce. If you can’t decide on the combination to order, you can always ask the staff for recommendations. In general, they advised that it doesn’t matter which balls you choose, but the sauce should match what you have under the balls. This classic combination of red wine and pappardelle was a fabulous pairing, with the sauce being delightfully flavourful. It was surprisingly viscous, which gave the dish a richness that was rather unexpected. No complaints about that though. The beef balls were decently tasty, and I liked how it went together with the rest of the dish.
Our second selection were the Iberico Pork balls x Italian Pappardelle x Creamy Truffle Mushroom. Our waitress actually recommended that we chose the oven roasted vegetables to go with the mushroom sauce, but we decided against it as we were worried that we wouldn’t be full enough. Let’s just say that you should probably go with what the staff recommend. It’s not that the pairing was bad. In fact, it was tasty. But gosh, the thick noodles paired with creamy sauce was a little too much for me to stomach. The Iberico Pork balls were rather porky, as Sam pointed out, though I found the flavour quite unique and worth a try.
Both bowls we ordered were intensely flavoured and rich in texture, which made for a very filling meal, even though I had previously gotten reviews that the portions were a tad small. It could be that I was not very hungry that day, but after the meal at Club Meatballs, I was absolutely stuffed. The balls were rather disappointing though. While they were relatively tasty, they seemed to be overshadowed by the pronounced flavours in the other elements of the dish, and were a little dry. There’s a lot to live up to when trying to carve out a niche. Though Club Meatballs have an interesting concept, they should probably work harder to make their star item truly worth its namesake.
Club Meatballs
China Square Central #01-35
Tel.: +65 6222 8660
Mon-Thu 11am-12mn
Fri 1100am-1am
Sat 10am-12mn
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